Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Bangkok Jam - Emporium Pluit

It was an unusually quiet Sunday when the 7 of us decided on a last minute to have dinner somewhere near. So hopping on the car and there I realized I remembered seeing a recently opened Thai restaurant in Emporium Pluit. It has, however, been opened for a few months now and don't blame me for not going to that part of the mall often.

I knew I was about to leave for the real Bangkok city soon, but there is this urge for a pad thai dinner. (Bangkok food adventure will be on the blog hopefully soon). Deciding on this restaurant simple, none of my friends seem to care of what to eat, so they just jumped board the boat with me.

The traditional Thai ice tea was super super sweet. Though the taste of pandan is very apparent, too much of this drink will make you diabetic. I'm not sure, but maybe we could ask for a separate sugar next time.

We ordered a couple of entrees; Spicy Papaya Salad and Prawn Cakes. The salad was ordinary, nothing special, though there is a nice touch on the extra floss and peanuts sprinkled on top. The Prawn Cake, on the other hand, was delicious. Definitely the winner among all the other dishes, the prawn cake is skewered with a stick of lemongrass. The idea wasn't that original, but compliments go to the cake. You can really taste the tender of prawn meat, covered in crispy breadcrumbs and the sweet and sour dip make the whole dish more than your usual prawn cake. The not-so-oily after taste makes you want to munch more.

What is a trip to a Thai restaurant without ordering the pad thai? This is the one dish that makes me wanna visit the restaurant, but but but, how disappointing. Pad thai has got to be one dish that define the ability of the Thai chef, I just kept reminding myself, don't get my hopes up. None of what I imagine a REAL pad thai should taste like appear in front of me. Even before tasting it, I knew the noddles must had been overcooked, and that was the biggest mistake someone cooking a pad thai could ever make. Then I thought please at least serve something tasty, how wrong could I be. The dish was completely tasteless! Even with the dried chilly added and a splash of that lemon wedge, the dish is bland. Like as if it's cooked for someone with all the health complications. Enough with the complain, I would just sum up; prawn was hard; spring onion was RAW; and the portion would feed at most 2 babies!

Thanks to the donkey, the next dish we ordered were much better. The red curry chicken was nice, though if the spiciness level is to be increased to another level, it would be a perfect companion for my rice. First, it was very rich, the tinginess of that curry would make your tongue numb for a fraction of a second, then the distinct combination of spices and coconut milk makes the dish more complete. Inside, there were these green beans which I'm not sure what they were.

Another Thai favorite is of course the TomYum Seafood. But, in case you're wondering, let your imagination of a perfect sour and spicy soup filled with an abundant of seafood run wild. I think I cooked a better TomYum soup than the fellas in the kitchen. The TomYum they served is too light, too sour, and inside were a piece of mantis prawn, another piece of smaller prawn, 5 pieces of mushrooms, 3 pieces of fish, and that's all.

A friend wanted to order a fish and we ordered this Gourami Chilly Sauce. It was simply just deep-fried pieces of gourami fish, with traditional Thai sweet and spicy chilly sauce. I just don't get how the chefs couldn't make a simple TomYum soup or Padthai, but able to make this fish dish such a treat. The fish was lightly battered and deep-fried to a certain wellness. While the outside batter is still smoking hot and crispy, the inner flesh was soft and tender. Unlike the usual deep-fried gourami fish. Then pieces of onions and capsicum are stir-fried along with garlic, pineapple and chilly. Overall, the fish was a very nice conclusion to our dinner.

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About Me

My very first blog about food (My very first blog about anything actually). Not much to say here, other than how excited I am to finally own and share my own food blog (or diary). Thanks to the other food bloggers whom I thought had done such amazing jobs sharing their passion with the rest of the world. Feel free to leave comments or criticisms.